Mark Dalby

New government test results show that a proposed high-speed wireless broadband network being launched by a company called LightSquared could jam GPS systems used for aviation, public safety, military operations and other uses.

The results released this week by a federal working group come amid mounting concern that LightSquared’s planned network could cripple GPS systems embedded throughout the nation’s infrastructure. And they raise questions about whether the government will allow LightSquared to turn its network on as scheduled next year.

In January the Federal Communications Commission gave LightSquared approval to build a nationwide fourth-generation wireless network that would compete with super-fast systems being rolled out by AT&T and Verizon. The new network will wholesale access to other companies that will rebrand the service under their own names.

The FCC sees the LightSquared network as one part of a broad government push to bring high-speed Internet connections to all Americans. It would cover at least 92 percent of the U.S. by 2015. But the company’s plans have set off alarm bells among GPS equipment makers and the many government agencies and companies that rely on GPS systems, because LightSquared’s network would use airwaves right next to those already set aside for GPS. They warn that sensitive satellite receivers – designed to pick up relatively weak signals coming from space – could be overwhelmed when LightSquared starts sending high-powered signals from as many as 40,000 transmitters on the ground.

In accordance with Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, I believe the answer is a resounding “no.”

The unusually virulent meme quickly spread around the Mac blogging world that iMessage will kill SMS as we know it and, going one stage further, to characterize iMessage as “an attack” on the carriers. John Gruber of Daring Fireball went so far as to say he would “cancel my SMS plan as soon as this ships.”

But hold on there a second. Is it really that simple? Sure, on the face of it, iMessage has all the ingredients to completely replace SMS. It can send text and pictures and contact vCards, exactly as an SMS can. It’s enriched with the ability to tell when the person you’re chatting to has received and read your messages, and you can also see when they are typing a response.

It can do many-to-many group messaging too. And best of all — this is all transferred over your iPhone or iPad’s Wifi or 3G data connections, so it’s free! Well, at least until you exceed your 3G bandwidth cap and have to pay an overage charge, anyway. It sure sounds like iMessage is going to kick some sand in SMS’s face.

But there’s a bit of a flaw in this line of reasoning. iMessage is resolutely iOS only — so far, we’ve not even seen any evidence it’ll be able to interoperate with Macs, let alone work with other smartphones — even though that means Apple is now shipping three incompatible communication clients (iChat, FaceTime, and now iMessage). When you send a message to someone who doesn’t have an iOS device (which it detects based on some sort of deep black magic that sounds similar to the SIP database Apple runs for FaceTime call placing) it falls back to plain ol’ SMS.

All too many businesses start a wireless network by installing Wi-Fi the same way you would at home. They will buy a low-end, consumer-grade access point from a Linksys, D-Link, or Buffalo Technology and put it in a common area, such as a conference room. Just like that, potentially for less than $ 100, you have a wireless network that is convenient for your employees and guests to use. You saved a bundle, but it’s a big mistake.

Let’s assume you have enough technical savvy to deploy the WAP (wireless access point) properly and transmit on a channel in which there is limited interference. If not, you could create a self-inflicted denial of service by choosing a frequency currently being used by your secretary’s cordless phone. Because cordless phones often transmit on the same 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequencies need for Wi-Fi, your browser may time out or your email stop every time someone calls the secretary — and now you know why.

But let’s assume you were smart enough to avoid that. Let’s assume you also know to enable best security practices such as using WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2), because if you botch the security you may have an even bigger problem on your hands. Choosing weak encryption/authentication, or none whatsoever, is an open invitation to the bad guys and a security breach.

Like a lot of cell phone users, you may be wondering just what your wireless company knows about you. Can it see what kinds of apps you’re running on your phone and where you go online while you’re out and about? Can it tell what types of phones and tablets are connected to their networks, and how much data they consume? The answer to these questions is “yes.”

As mobile data usage has skyrocketed, wireless operators have built even more intelligence into their networks to help them can allocate network resources properly. For instance, if you download or upload moderate-size files from the Internet, your provider might label your task “low priority” and allocate more available bandwidth to the person across the street who is running a highly time-sensative app like video chat.

In general terms, wireless operators capture three main kinds of information: information about the devices connected to the network, metadata about the packets of data that run through the network, and information about the content contained in the packets being downloaded or uploaded by the subscriber. For the most part, the carrier sees this information in an aggregated form that is not directly associated with individual users. Operators spend most of their time looking at large trends in the usage patterns of large groups of users.